The Japanese Mind: Understanding Contemporary Culture

In The Japanese Mind, Roger Davies offers Westerners an invaluable key to the unique aspects of Japanese culture. Readers of this book will gain a clear understanding of what really makes the Japanese, and their society, tick.

Among the topics explored: aimai (ambiguity), amae (dependence upon others’ benevolence), amakudari (the nation’s descent from heaven), chinmoku (silence in communication), gambari (perseverence), giri (social obligation), haragei (literally, "belly art"; implicit, unspoken communication), kenkyo (the appearance of modesty), sempai-kohai (seniority), wabi-sabi (simplicity and elegance), and zoto (gift giving), as well as discussions of childrearing, personal space, and the roles of women in Japanese society. Includes discussion topics and questions after each chapter.

With Respect to the Japanese: A Guide for Americans

I work at a Japanese Company and recently participated in across-cultural learning class. This book was provided as apre-requisite to the class. I was able to get more out of this book than any other book on this subject that I had previously read. The book explains how children are raised in the Japanese Environment, their belief/value system, and how that translates into their eventual adult/working life environment. I have recommended this book to both people inside my company and Companies I deal with on a daily basis. It has taken some of the "mystery" out of the Japanese Culture for me.

Introduction to Japanese Culture

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his is an essential overview of Japanese life and society today.

About the Author
Narumi Yasuda, born in Kagawa Prefecture in 1947, is a leading landscape photographer whose work has appeared on calendars and in numerous magazines and other publications, including Michinoku Bojo (Journey into Northern Japan), Furusato no Shiki wo Yuku: Nihon no Joki-Kikansha (Steam Locomotives through the Japanese Countryside), Japan: An Invitation, Nippon: Land of Beauty and Tradition, and Beautiful Japan.

Daniel Sosnoski is an American writer who has lived in Japan since 1985. His experiences as an editor of travel and cultural guides have taken him the length and breadth of Japan and given him an appreciation of the country’s natural beauty. He continues to explore and discover new elements of the land and its people.

Japanese Culture

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For nearly three decades Japanese Culture has garnered high praise as an accurate and well-written introduction to Japanese history and culture. This widely used undergraduate text is now available in a new edition. Thoroughly updated, the fourth edition includes expanded sections on numerous topics, among which are samurai values, Zen Buddhism, the tea ceremony, Confucianism in the Tokugawa period, the story of the forty-seven ronin, Mito scholarship in the early nineteenth century, and mass culture and comics in contemporary times.